I remember sitting along the 3rd base line of my t-ball field at the tender age of four years old. I was batting 5th in our lineup, and I was talking with the boy who was batting cleanup. He was bragging about batting fourth, which even then we all knew was reserved for the power hitters. I agreed with him and said that he could probably be a DH he was so good (I was young and didn't understand that the designated hitter was created to elongate the careers of the washed up). He wasn't sure what DH meant, and so I explained the position of designated hitter to him, and went back to chewing the laces off of my glove.
I have always loved baseball. I have always to be a student of the game. I enjoy how the speed of the game is such that there is plenty of time to think everything through. I love its introspective nature and they way it is several solo efforts combined into a team performance. Most of my earliest memories are of Little League or Knothole Night at the Metrodome. It's been a life long love affair, but it has been a very dynamic one.
I spent many summer evenings running around my backyard diving after pop ups my Dad would throw just out of range. I imagined myself as Dan Gladden streaking across left field. I mastered catching a tough fly to my glove side, planting my right foot as I spun around and using my momentum to hurl in a powerful throw to my cutoff man, just like Danny. My defense was fine tuned. However, my tiny girl arms meant that I was never going to become an offensive force. Watching the Twins win the 1991 World Series as my idol landed on home plate swarmed by his teammates fed my passion throughout elementary school.
I played with the boys through the summer after sixth grade, long after most of the other girls left for softball. I played both softball and baseball that year to prepare myself for the transition. It was a rough summer. I played two years of slow pitch leading up to trying out for high school fastpitch. Again, offense was not my forte, and I was a defensive replacement for Varsity starting in 10th grade. I was a captain by the time I was a senior, but still batted around .210 every year with a load of sac bunts.
I was, and still am, a headcase out on the field. I mutter situations to myself. I talk through the outs and the runners, where the play is going. I would chatter in the infield, but stick to saying all the cliches twice ("Infield going one now, infield going one" or "Nice pitch Shooter, nice pitch," or my favorite "Here we go now, here we go"). Fastpitch isn't really anything at all like baseball in terms of the mentaliy of the game. The infield is so small and the action is almost entirely beween the pitcher and the batter. Walk-strikeout-bunt, that's it. Infielders had to be cat-like and outfielders had to have cannons.
I have played on at least one Adult Rec league softball team every year since. I like to say I have a 22 year career going, but it's been hard to think that I have anything to do with baseball anymore when slowpitch is all I have left. I still list my two favorite smells as baseball dirt and cut grass. Everytime I see a pyramid sun in the sky I know it means it is baseball season. This is the game that I have spent my life with, and it will always be my first and truest love.
I decided that after the year I had in 2008 that 2009 needed to be better. I needed to find something to focus my life on that was just for me. I needed a way to feel content and stable. 2009 is going to be a renewal of my dedication to my Twins and my sport. I went to around 25 games last season, and kept a book at a few, but wasn't engrossed like I usually am. I live across the street from the HomerDome now, and am recommiting myself. I am accomplishing 3 lifelong goals this year: I have season tickets, I am going to Spring Training, and I am going to watch my Local 9 play at Wrigley Field. I have put over a month's salary into this season so far, and the starters haven't even pitched 5 innings in a game yet. This is going to be my year.
I will write later on my views on the current roster for your Minnesota Twins. I will also share my philosophy on how the game should be played. I simply wanted to give a small, and not nearly as poetic as I had hoped, backstory on my baseball history. As you will learn soon enough, I value heart over skill everytime, so get used to getting an opinion that is backed by numbers almost none percent of the time.
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